BlueKai Inc. became the center of the perfect digital storm on Tuesday. The Bellevue, Wash-based data exchange outfit rose among the hottest internet topics following the Wall Street Journal quoted BlueKai’s CEO in an article about Internet monitoring . The article, number one in a series, alleges that cookies are “spying on consumers” when the programs collect data on browsing habits. Disagreeing with the Journal’s stance, BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakoi said that it is dangerous to the online industry when cookies are called spying.
BlueKai cookie data targets browsing habits
In 2008 BlueKai was a start-up created to carve a marketing niche online in “data exchange”. As reported by TechFlash, BlueKai packages anonymous consumer data collected by cookies it installs on leading retail, travel and automotive sites. Online auctions created by BlueKai invite bids on the data from advertisers. Because BlueKai cookies track browsing habits, advertisers pay real money to target individuals who have shown they might be interested in a specific escape destination or vehicle model.
Data exchange a rapidly growing industry
Each day on the data exchange, BlueKai markets 50 million unique packages outlining the browsing habits of specific customers, said the Wall Street Journal. The series of reports is billed as a saga about how spying on Internet users has become a bigger, more intrusive business than most individuals suspect. A Journal study of the nation’s top 50 web sites found that an average of 64 cookers per user were installed without warning. Cookies scan what individuals are doing and assess location, income, shopping interests and medical conditions. These profiles are marketed on stock market-like data exchanges by companies like BlueKai.
In a post on Advertising Age, Tawakoi rebutted the Journal’s argument. BlueKai cookies, Tawakoi said, enable promoters to show customers ads with stronger relevance at a more effective frequency. Plus, the proceeds help pay for the content. He said a “less polarizing” discussion would be helpful and that the Journal calling cookies spying is “misleading at best and damaging to the online industry at its worst “Tawakoi suggested that the Journal’s insistence on saying that cookies are spying is misleading and damages the productive growth of the online industry. Tawakoi proposes making online data collection methods more open to customers, which BlueKai does with an online registry. BlueKai shows consumers precisely what is known about them and gives them control over what data they will allow the business to use.
Further reading
TechFlash
techflash.com/seattle/2008/12/BlueKai_gets_105_million_to_help_advertisers_target_shoppers36189094.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395073512989404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395073512989404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj%3c
Advertising Age
adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=145208″
